Frustrated with my Bernina bobbin!
 

I have a Bernina Artista 640E which I do all of my quilting on. I've used this machine like workhorse for over 10 years and I know most of it's "kinks".

Lately as I sew, the computer screen shows that the bobbin case needs to be cleaned. I do it, as the manual tells me. I sometimes use canned air when I know I've been using the embroidery/quilting feature which tends to leave behind more dust. The problem is this happens over and over and over. I end up getting so frustrated that I put away my project for a couple of days. Then the feature works well for about two days and starts to show the "clean bobbin case" symbol again. And again. And again.

What am I doing wrong? Do I need to take it in for servicing? Seems like it should be something simple.

Canned air can degrade the metal's finish, I have seen this on bobbin cases. I think it's time for a service.

My Husqvarna was doing this, and I wanted to chuck it in the lake!

What I found was that, especially when I was using the thread cutter a lot, a little bit of lint was building up around the cutter. I had to take the cutter out and clean really thoroughly around it to get the message to go away.

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See that fuzz bit behind the thread cutter? I had to comb the lint out of that to get the error to quit coming up every time I cut thread. (Edit: it wasn't just when I used the thread cutter, it was every inch or so as I was sewing. Sometimes I would clean everything, and it would tell me to clean the bobbin after two stitches.) It's definitely not in the manual, but it worked!

Your machine had a different bobbin system from mine, but the problem might be similar. Good luck!

I just bought a Babylock Destiny embroidery machine. This is a small family owned shop, and the two brothers work on a wide variety of machines. They told me not to use canned air, as it's not just air, but has propellants and possibly lubricants in it also, and those items can cause problems gunking up tiny openings in the machine. He did say if I wanted to blow it out, I could use my setup I have for airbrush painting, that has a water separator and I can put the pressure way down.

Now I know that with the HQ Infinity, the same dealer said it needs to be cleaned with compressed air, (and canned air is fine) but not to use it on my HQ Fusion because the housing is built so it won't blow stuff out - but in where it can get lodged and cause more problems.

You mentioned that you clean out your machine as per the manual instructs.
However, does the manual suggest using canned air?

I don't have yours, but do have a Bernina 820.
My service tech was very firm to never use canned air, as it will just blow the lint around ... and potentially send it further into the machine than can be reached. Meaning the need to send to him for servicing sooner!
Instead, the bobbin area should be brushed or vacuumed out regularly.

I was also told not to use canned air on either my Bernina Artista 180 or the 1630. They recommended cleaning well and using the vacuum attachement I have. Its possible there's a small piece of lint possibly blown somewhere you can't reach it that's causing the problem. Probably time to take it in for a servicing.

I was told and had heard from more than one source not to use canned air to clean a machine. For all the above reasons.

Thanks everyone!
 

Wow! Thanks everyone. I had no idea I could be damaging my machine with canned air. It's gone!
A special thanks to Jennifer23. I will definitely check the thread cutter before I take it in.

Cathy

Someone told me a few years back not to used canned air. Jim wanted to when he cleaned it for me last year. I told him that he could not.

Good luck with you machine.